Keywords: Alexander, Daryush (Darius), Kouroosh (Cyrus), Persepolis, Marco Polo, Silk Road, Mashhad, Imam Reza, Zoroastrian religion (Zartosht), the world's largest lake - the Caspian, Hafez, Sa'di, Ferdousi
India Connections: Throughout history, North India and Persia have had close ties. Here are a few that spring to mind (1) To many North Indians, their own country's name is "Hindustan". This (pronounced "Hendoostan" by the Iranians I met) comes from Persia in the first millenium BC. The story goes that the Persians could not pronounce "Sindhu" (the river Indus) and that led to the people East of this river being called "Hindus" etc etc. (2) Racially, Persians are very similar to North-western Indians. Both were originally of Aryan origin. Over the millenia, Han, Parthian, Scythian, Mongol and Turk blood got mixed into the populations of both regions, (3) Humayun, the Mughal Emperor sought refuge in Iran for 15 years in 1540-1555 AD, at the end of which period he was successful in regaining control of his Indian empire from the successors of Sher Shah Suri who had displaced him in the first place, (4) In the following century, Humayun's great-great-grandson Dara was on his way to doing the same when he was betrayed by a fort commander and handed over to his brother Aurangzeb, the sixth Mughal emperor, and the last great one, (5) Nadir Shah's invasion of Delhi is still remembered with pride or hatred, depending on which side you're in. Besides killing thousands (estimates vary from 10K to much higher numbers), he looted the pride of the Delhi rulers - their jewels and diamonds, including the Koh-i-Noor and Darya-i-Noor. Read their history online if interested. It's too long to recite it here., (6) Parsis came from Persia to India, finding a saafe refuge and religious freedom... the list is endless. Oh, one last thing - the counting in Farsi is startlingly similar to Hindi - Yek, Do, Se, Chaar, Panj (think Panjab, the land of the 5 rivers), shish, haft (think "hafta" or week), asht (the Sanskrit root indicates a common linguistic origin), nau, dah. Are you amazed yet?